The Lonely
by Agent Author
Summary: LaLa is tired, confused, and miserable. Lucky, the one animal that kept her going in life, has left her village. She now questions her own existence. Songfic, one-shot, rated T for safety, R&R.


**A/N: I realize that I should be working on my Lord of the Rings story, but I got the inspiration for this story while playing my new game, Animal Crossing: Wild World, when Lucky said he was leaving. For the record, in my game, I convinced him to stay, so I don't know how it goes down when an animal leaves. After all, I bought the game yesterday.**

**The song in this is The Lonely by Christina Perri.**

…

You open the door of your shack of a house and slip inside without a sound. The usual squeak of the door and pitter-patter of your feet don't ring through your ears like they usually do. You can't hear anything because you're thinking too hard. Thinking too hard about what just happened.

…

You step inside Lucky's house and look around. You've never seen its interior, before. It's bigger than your own, but every other critical inhabitant of this town considers it a matchbox of a dwelling. You observe your surroundings and are bewildered by the several boxes stacked up against the Egyptian-themed walls and floor. Is Lucky a newcomer like you? Did he arrive mere minutes before you did in a taxicab at the town hall? Is he still unpacking?

You tap his shoulder and he turns around, the mummy bandages masking his canine face falling loose and limp down his head. The eye you can see looks tired and sad. Having arrived in town a mere six hours ago, you don't quite have the hang of reading its villagers, but you know something is wrong with your best friend.

"Huh huh huh. Say good-bye to Mr. Sun, rrr-owch," he mumbles to himself before noticing you're right in front of him, "Sooooo… Anyway… What can I do for you, rrr-owch?"

You shrug. "Let's talk!"

Lucky lets out a long sigh. Has he consumed too much java and is about to vomit? You step back in case he is. But he looks somber, not nauseous. What's going on? "Um, LaLa, I'm moving away." You blink in shock, unable to comprehend the words he just uttered. What did he say? He was grooving away? No, none of the other villagers are on a 1970's kick at this time of night. He said he's _moving _away_. _He's… moving? How can this be? "I didn't want to see you cry, so I've been keeping it a secret from you until now." He doesn't want to see you cry? Mission failed. "But the time has come to say farewell, so thanks for everything, rrr-owch."

Your heart drops to your stomach then bounces back up and lodges itself in your throat. You can barely breathe, so it's all the harder to wheeze out, "You can't leave!" Hot tears are in your eyes.

He looks surprised. "Well, this is a problem. I didn't expect you to respond like that…" He starts to perspire- or cry. "I guess I should stay in this town, huh?"

Your heart rises, but you question what he's saying. "Don't leave me!" you manage to choke out in an urging way.

"Is that so?" he asks, looking at you the way he did when you first met. "Well, if that's how you're going to react, then I'll sleep on it for a while."

You don't know what to say. Your thoughts are mixed and jumbled together like a salad. He'll sleep on it? With the amount of sleep he gets every day, his decision better have plenty of reasons why! You nod and go home.

…

You're home now, and there's nothing you can do but go to sleep, if you can even accomplish that task. Falling asleep usually comes easy to you, no matter what you're thinking of. The night before you moved here, you were slowly succumbing to the nerves of leaving your family with nothing but the mint green gingham dress covering your body. But you slept like a baby that night, a new world, new life, and new friends inhabiting your dreams.

You fall asleep effortlessly.

…

You're standing in your room. Lucky left town for another one a few hours ago. You avoided Lucky's eye as best you could while bidding him farewell.

You slump into a corner and bury your face in your arms, letting out strangled and muffled sobs. After about a while of this, you check your watch.

_2 AM, where do I begin?_

Two in the morning. You've been crying for two hours. That seems like a record, but you don't marvel at it for a second.

_Crying off my face again, _

Indeed, you are crying. But how could you not be? He's gone. Lucky's gone. Your best friend is gone.

_The silent sound of loneliness,_

How painfully silent it is. Why does loneliness have to be so silent? Loneliness sometimes doesn't seem like a reserved occupation, but sometimes it just has to be. There is no true way to describe loneliness, or so you think.

_Wants to follow me to bed,_

Bed. Why don't you just go to bed? Surely you'll be able to fall asleep? But you don't want to fall asleep. You want to stay awake, despite your exhaustion, and mourn the absence of your best friend.

_I'm a ghost of a girl that I want to be most,_

What girl do you want to be? You're a complete mess. Your family looks down on you, nobody in this village takes you seriously, and the only animal you really care about has abandoned you.

_I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well_

The girl you claim to used to know so well arrived three days ago. You didn't know yourself that well, but Lucky made you feel complete. He's that missing part you left home for in the first place.

_Dancing slowly in an empty room,_

You stand on your feet, possessed by a new, strange feeling, and pretend that Lucky's here with you. He doesn't have any feeling, though. The mere thought of him doesn't form his presence here. Regardless, you take your position and begin to ballroom dance across the attic. You can hardly bear this, but you continue, holding in your tears. Masochist.

_Can the lonely take the place of you?_

Of course it can't. Nothing can replace Lucky. Nothing.

_I sing myself a quiet lullaby,_

You shock yourself in doing so, but the soft notes escape your mouth, accompanied by meaningless lyrics. You lose yourself in the song that has nothing to do with your situation and lean back, pretending Lucky is bending you back, a common dance move.

_Let you go and let the lonely in,_

You can't let him go. You refuse to. The air holding you to erect posture guides you through the attic and you ignore the squeaks of the floorboards, under the spell of a fake dance.

_To take my heart again,_

Just like he did. His charm and love for food and sleep caught you at first sight. You took to him instantly. You wanted to be his friend- his only friend. You stop dancing and your feet carry you to Lucky's front door.

_Too afraid to go inside,_

You raise your hand, hoping that when you knock on the door, it will unlock and he will be there, ready to apologize for scaring you. But you can't bring your knuckles to the solid wood. The disappointment and denial will be too much.

_For the pain of one more loveless night,_

You've had your share of loveless nights, but this one takes the cake. Your previous loveless nights were your parents' fault. Now it's Lucky's fault. You go back home and up to your attic.

_For the loneliness will stay with me,_

Yes, it will. It will stay with you for the rest of your life, if you don't end it out of depression.

_And hold me till I fall asleep_

You try to think of ways to make it your eternal sleep, but offing yourself in this village is impossible. There's nothing to do it with. And loneliness won't hold you. It'll drop you from a great height, catch you by a thread, enclose you and make you feel a little safe, then drop you again. The cycle will go on perpetually.

_I'm a ghost of a girl that I want to be most,_

You aren't even a ghost of a girl you want to be. You're just a ghost. A miserable, looming presence over this village.

_I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well_

Who are you kidding? You never knew yourself. Lucky never knew you, and that's probably why he left.

_Dancing slowly in an empty room,_

The room you begin to dance in once again feels more vacant than ever.

_Can the lonely take the place of you?_

You're desperate to prove to yourself that it can.

_I sing myself a quiet lullaby,_

It helps less and less with every word, but you struggle to finish the song.

_Let you go and let the lonely in,_

Can you let go? You feel like you might be able to, but you can't release the invisible partner holding you upright.

_To take my heart again_

You've given it your heart several times, so what's wrong with giving it that vital organ now? Would it not end the pain to give your heart to Death?

_Broken pieces of_

Everything continues to break. Every broken piece splits into two and drop, waiting for those pieces to shatter.

_a barely breathing story,_

It's true, your story is barely breathing. You're barely breathing. The relationship between you and Lucky isn't comprehensible at all. He used to hint on that he had feelings for you, and then at other times, he would freeze up. And he thinks _girls _are confusing.

_Where there once was love,_

Was there ever love? Is there love now? You don't know, nor do you know if you care to. Does Lucky love you? Did he ever? You knew him for three days.

_Now there's only me,_

Yes, you're the only one in your village, it seems. This isn't really true, but none of the other inhabitants have the depth or intelligence to help you.

_And the lonely_

Of course, how could you forget about that?

_Dancing slowly in an empty room,_

You grow tired of dancing, as does your nonexistent partner. You fall to the floor with a thud you don't hear.

_Can the lonely take the place of you?_

You wish so badly that it could.

_I sing myself a quiet lullaby,_

You finish the ballad in a weak, broken voice.

_Let you go and let the lonely in,_

You look at your hand and see that it's balled into a fist. You unclench it. It hurts, but you perform the action. With this action, your head falls to the floor and you stare at the ceiling.

_To take my heart again…_

It's taken your heart for the final time, now. Your life flashes before your eyes. There isn't much to it, but Lucky's bandages are the last thing you see.

You love him.

Your eyes don't close as they become lifeless.

…

LUCKY'S P.O.V.

It has been a week since you found out about LaLa.

Tom Nook found her body in the attic after she didn't show herself around town for days. No one ever found out about the true cause of her death, but Peanut said the human had died of a broken heart.

You ate every kind of food you could at the funeral, which was decorated to LaLa's nautical style. When you visited her resting in the casket, she didn't look serene in death. She didn't look like she was in the hands of God. She looked like she was floating in space, forever lost without a trace of anything, not even herself.

You took her for granted for the first three days you had known her. Naturally, you regret it now. Your two loves used to be sleep and food.

You go without food and sleep for days.

You're hungry, thirsty, and fatigued. LaLa is all you can think about. You order drink after drink at the bar, drowning yourself to quench your never-ending thirst. Your head is spinning in an endless loop. You begin to weep in mute, feeling isolated. You're so hungry that your insides eat themselves until your heart is hollow. Your veins swallow the very blood coursing through your body.

You look at your hand and see that it's balled into a fist. You unclench it. It hurts, but you perform the action. Your head falls forward onto the dirty counter and you wince in pain. You brace yourself as your life flashes before your eyes. There isn't much to it, only the series of places and people you abandoned. One of those people is LaLa.

You love her. You have since you first laid eyes on her and heard her confused voice.

Keeping this thought tucked inside yourself, you smile weakly. You'll be with her soon.

The last thing your one eye sees is LaLa's bright blue eyes.

Then everything around you goes black.

…

**Definitely my darkest story yet, especially for a game as lighthearted as Animal Crossing, but I like it! Please review! Please! Or your player will die a death as terrible as LaLa's! **


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